Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Israeli strikes on Gaza, U.S.-Canada trade talks, and a dangerous heat wave in Southern Europe.
Truce Talks for Gaza
Top Israeli officials, including Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, flew to Washington on Monday to reignite Gaza cease-fire and hostage release talks. But as Israel launches some of its heaviest attacks on the territory in weeks, experts are concerned that negotiations to end the more than 20-month war will remain largely stagnant.
U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday that a truce agreement could be reached within the next week. He doubled down on this assertion over the weekend, first posting on Saturday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “right now in the process of negotiating a Deal with Hamas, which will include getting the Hostages back” and then calling on both sides on Sunday to “MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!!”
Netanyahu has expressed similar optimism. “As you probably know, many opportunities have opened up now following this victory,” the Israeli leader said on Sunday, referring to the end of the 12-day Israel-Iran conflict, which Israel, Iran, and the United States have all claimed success over. “Firstly, to rescue the hostages,” Netanyahu added. “Of course, we will also need to solve the Gaza issue, defeat Hamas, but I believe we will accomplish both missions.”
Netanyahu’s comments mark a potential shift in how he views Israel’s goals in the war, as he has previously prioritized defeating Hamas over rescuing the hostages, of whom 50 are believed to still be in Gaza (and of whom 27 are believed by Israel to be dead).
Israel has argued that it will not end the war until Hamas disarms and disbands, which the militant group refuses to do. And Hamas maintains that it will not agree to a truce deal unless the terms include a permanent end to the war and the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza, which Israel has been reluctant to promise.
Yet heavy Israeli strikes across Gaza could further undermine negotiation efforts. Israeli forces killed at least 60 Palestinians on Monday, with tanks reportedly pushing into eastern areas of Gaza City and bombs hitting several schools in Gaza’s north after displaced families sheltering inside were told to evacuate. Israel claims that it struck militant targets, including command-and-control centers, only after taking steps to mitigate the risk to civilians.
More than 80 percent of the Gaza Strip is now under displacement orders or is part of Israel’s militarized zone, according to the United Nations, with the new evacuation orders on Monday displacing large portions of northern Gaza. Israeli forces have killed more than 56,000 Palestinians since the war began in October 2023, and they have displaced almost all of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.
On Monday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also acknowledged that Palestinian civilians have been harmed at aid distribution sites in Gaza, adding that Israeli troops have received new instructions following “lessons learned.” Hundreds of people have been killed or injured while trying to access food from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.- and Israeli-backed aid group—a system that United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has accused of being “inherently unsafe” and “killing people.”
Israel maintains that it does not target civilians. However, Israeli soldiers and commanders in Gaza told Israeli newspaper Haaretz last week that the military has ordered troops to deliberately shoot at crowds near aid centers to disperse them, even when it is clear that they pose no threat. Israel denies these allegations, with Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz describing them as “blood libels.” Haaretz also reported that Israel’s Military Advocate General has instructed the IDF’s fact-finding body to investigate possible war crimes committed by Israeli forces at the aid distribution sites.
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The World This Week
Tuesday, July 1: The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue holds a foreign ministers’ meeting in Washington.
French President Emmanuel Macron hosts Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter in Paris while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz hosts Luxembourger Prime Minister Luc Frieden in Berlin.
The European Union-Turkey High-Level Political Dialogue convenes in Ankara.
Wednesday, July 2: Argentina hosts the two-day Mercosur leaders’ summit.
Brussels hosts the EU-China Strategic Dialogue.
Thursday, July 3: The three-day Aix-en-Provence Economic Forum begins in France.
Friday, July 4: Moldova hosts the EU-Moldova Summit.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi begins a two-day visit to Argentina.
Sunday, July 6: Eight OPEC+ countries convene for a virtual meeting.
Brazil hosts a two-day BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro.
What We’re Following
Back to the negotiating table. U.S. economic advisor Kevin Hassett confirmed on Monday that U.S. trade talks have resumed with Canada after Ottawa agreed on Sunday to scrap its 3 percent digital services tax on U.S. companies. Although the tax had been in place since last year, Monday was the first day that payments were due.
“Thank you Canada for removing your Digital Services Tax which was intended to stifle American innovation and would have been a deal breaker for any trade deal with America,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick wrote on X. Under the now-suspended policy, U.S. companies would have had to turn over around $2.7 billion to the Canadian government.
Trump first condemned the Canadian tax in a Truth Social post last Friday, calling it a “direct and blatant attack” on the United States and vowing to terminate all trade negotiations over the policy. Within 48 hours, Canada changed course, saying Ottawa had decided to “rescind the Digital Services Tax … in anticipation of a mutually beneficial comprehensive trade arrangement with the United States.” Canada’s parliament still needs to approve the cancellation.
Extreme heat risks. A dangerous heat wave continued to grip much of Southern Europe on Monday, with temperatures breaking into triple digits and forecasters warning that relief is still days away. Meteorologists say that climate change is causing more frequent and more extreme heat waves.
“Extreme heat is no longer a rare event—it has become the new normal,” Guterres wrote on X on Monday while staying in Seville, Spain, where temperatures hit 108 degrees Fahrenheit. “The planet is getting hotter & more dangerous—no country is immune.”
France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain are among the nations facing the worst conditions. On Saturday, the Spanish town of El Granado recorded temperatures of nearly 115 degrees Fahrenheit—surpassing the country’s previous high of 113 degrees recorded in Seville 60 years ago. The town of Mora in central Portugal reached a whopping 116 degrees on Sunday. And in Greece, a wildfire broke out south of Athens last Thursday, forcing authorities to issue evacuation orders for several communities.
On Monday, Spain’s Health Ministry issued red, “high risk” alerts for its northeast, west, and southwest regions. It joins several other governments in raising their threat warnings, including Rome—which placed 21 out of 27 monitored cities under its highest heat alert—and Paris, where portions of the capital city’s region are now under a Level 4 alert, its highest level.
Surprise electoral success. Chilean Communist Party candidate Jeannette Jara secured a surprise victory in Sunday’s primary presidential election for the incumbent coalition, beating her more moderate rival with more than 60 percent of the vote. The strong showing puts the former labor minister on track to face off against right-wing opponents in November’s election.
“Today begins a new path that we will walk together, with the conviction to build a fairer and more democratic Chile,” Jara wrote on X. “In the face of the threat from the far right, we respond with unity, dialogue, and hope.” Jara gained popularity for reducing the work week to 40 hours and raising the country’s minimum wage while serving as labor minister from March 2022 to April 2025.
Still, Jara faces an uphill battle, starting with voter turnout; just 1.4 million people out of around 15.4 million eligible voters cast ballots in Sunday’s primary. And recent opinion polls show that support for the current left-wing government under President Gabriel Boric is falling as economic growth slows and organized crime numbers rise. These issues have mobilized support for ultraconservative lawyer José Antonio Kast and business-friendly former Labor Minister Evelyn Matthei, who are also running for president.
Odds and Ends
A farm in southwest England became the go-to spot for music lovers this weekend as the United Kingdom held its five-day Glastonbury music festival. With hundreds of thousands of attendees, nearly 4,000 performers, and 1.2 million pints of beer (enough to fill two standard-sized swimming pools), this year’s festival quickly became one for the record books.
But the event also became one of controversy after the BBC said on Monday that it regrets livestreaming English punk duo Bob Vylan’s performance, during which the band members led the crowd in chanting for “death” to the Israeli military for its actions in Gaza. The BBC called the comments antisemitic, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said there was no excuse for such “appalling hate speech,” and the U.S. State Department said it had revoked the performers’ visas over their actions.
The post Deadly Israeli Strikes on Gaza Threaten Cease-Fire Talks appeared first on Foreign Policy.
